


Family, of Sorts

by cynicalwerewolf



Series: A Clarification of Life [3]
Category: Changeling: The Lost
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-15 16:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynicalwerewolf/pseuds/cynicalwerewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Family is composed of the people you can't strangle. No matter how much you might want to at times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family, of Sorts

Neko quietly let herself into her foster home. While she hadn’t been out past her curfew, Dame Aliss, the Gristlegrinder matron/foster parent was waiting for her. Neko gave her a curious look and said, “If you could wake me up early tomorrow, I need to talk with Tern before school.”

Dame Aliss replied, “You don’t need to do that. She’s been waiting up for you in your room.” When Neko growled at that, she smiled, showing her stony teeth, and said, “She’s been sitting on information again, hasn’t she.”

“Yes,” said Neko, still growling. “I took Fidget into a mob waiting to happen. Now, Ty asked us there, but he had only found out after he arrived, when it was too late to call us and warn us off. If Tern’s still up, she’s got to have known what was going on before hand.” Neko didn’t think it was unfair to accuse Tern of this type of deception. The Windwing had done this before, and whenever it happened, she was always waiting for the person to come home. Admittedly, her grasp on reality was…tenuous to say the least, but Neko and Dame Aliss had told her often enough to _tell_ people when she had information that they might not.

Neko made her way up the stairs to the room she shared with Tern. The two of them were the only changelings under Aliss’s care, and the Gristlegrinder had made sure they stayed together, rather than putting them in with children who were closer to the same age, but might not understand their…quirks.

At times like this, though, Neko almost wished that she could wring the Windwing’s neck, like their Keeper had threatened to do often enough. Never seriously, or for long, but…

She opened the door to see the other changeling lounging on her bed, walkman playing, singing softly, “But there are dreams that cannot be, and there are storms we cannot weather. I had a dream that life would be, so different from this hell I’m living. So different now from what it seemed…now life has killed the dream I dreamed…”

With a roll of her eyes, Neko said, not loudly enough to wake the others but loudly enough that the other girl could hear her, “If you would turn off the Les Miserable, Tern, I have a bone to pick with you.” She had no idea why the other changeling loved the musical so much, especially as their life was depressing enough already.

Rolling over onto her stomach, the odd mixture of dragon, cat, and human smiled slightly. Even though Neko was used to the profusion that changelings came in, the Windwing-Hunterheart fusion, though not completely inhuman looking, always struck her as a bit of an oddity. White touched, grey striped hair and cat ears, solid black eyes, grey, scaled wings, claws, fangs, and glasses, Tern certainly stood out. “Hi, Neko.”

Neko growled again, “Don’t you ‘hi, Neko’ _me_! I want to know why you didn’t tell me what I was walking into tonight. God knows how any of us will get Fidget to ever come back into a changeling gathering place after what happened.”

Tern stretched, then stood. Walking over to Neko, she said, “Fidget must know all sides of our nature. He must understand that as mixtures of human and Fae, often we have the worst characteristics of both, just as we may have the best characteristics of both. He has been hurt by both humans and Fae, but he must learn to fall, trusting others to catch him, even if they may possibly have the worst characteristics of both of his tormentors. And he must learn this sooner, rather than later.”

“And will he survive this lessoning intact? Physically, mentally, and emotionally?” Neko ground out.

Tern shrugged, “I cannot say. But is the damage inflicted like this any worse than the damage which would be inflicted if he thought we were saints?” Reaching over to gently touch Neko’s arm, she said, “You cannot protect him always, although you might like to. Better he learn it with us standing by to shield him from the worst of it, rather than on his own.”

The girl had a point, but Neko wasn’t going to acknowledge it. Instead, she said, “How are you shielding him? You let him walk into that mess without any warning.”

“If I thought that he had been in any severe danger, I would have warned you. I apologize if the blow was stronger than I thought, but as none of the hostility was directed at him, I felt it better for him to see us at our worst, rather than at our best.” Dark eyes watching Neko, Tern said, “And he must know our capacity for cruelty in full, without ever needing to experience that personally directed at him. For you know we all carry it with us.”

Neko was silent for a moment. She was about to speak when Tern switched subjects, “Besides. Doctor Peter Venkman needed a complete assessment of the freehold attitudes for his motley. It would have been unfair for the Ghostbusters to believe that the entire year save Autumn is fully against them. And…” here she paused, “There must come a time when the Spring Court must accept the goblin fruit amongst the barley harvest. They must recognize it as amaranthine, and not fear gortach. The entire freehold must. And soon.”

At the mention of the two goblin fruits, one which healed the most mortal wounds, the other which was suspected of being a trap laid by the Others, Neko paused. This was obviously a metaphor, and it was fairly obvious what it meant… ”Soon, Tern? How soon?”

“Umm,” Tern’s eyes became distant. “Between Imbolic and Lughnasadh?” She offered.

Neko sighed, “I suppose that if I asked you to clarify you’d answer with a calendar that made even less sense, instead of actually pinning down a date?”

“Probably,” was the wry response. 

Neko made hair pulling motions, “Tern!” The other changeling gave her a brightly innocent smile. “That’s half a year! Surely you can narrow it down further!”

Tern sighed and stared into the distance again, “Between the equinox and the solstice. That’s the best you’re going to get. Spring,” she clarified.

“Thank you,” growled Neko.

“You’re welcome,” said Tern, without any sarcasm. Pulling her headphones on, she was soon singing. Neko sighed when she heard the lyrics Tern was singing along with. “Lovely ladies, waiting for a bite, waiting for the customers who only come at night.”

“Tern…” she began.

“What?” was the response.

“Do you really think that song is appropriate? You _are_ only twelve.”

“What?” Tern seemed genuinely bewildered. 

“A song about prostitutes?”

“It’s not like I don’t understand what goes on between prostitutes and their customers anyway. I know you remember that one time.”

Neko winced. She definitely remembered the time Tern was talking about. They had been chasing a…something…into their Keeper’s bedroom. Unfortunately, they chased it over his bed while he was enjoying himself with one of his humanoid slaves. She distinctly remembered him yelling “No useless, common moggies are going to interrupt me!” And pain. A great deal of pain.

Tern looked at her, saw her expression, and said, “Sorry. But it’s not like I’ve got much innocence to protect between _Him_ and the flashes I get.”

“Ummm. You mean, you…” Neko choked out.

“Yes,” was Tern’s calm response.

“Never mind…” Neko finished.

Tern began to turn over, then looked back over at Neko. “Oh, by the way,” she said, “When you meet Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler in two days, tell them that it’s all worked out between Eckard and his partners.”

“That would easier if I knew what they looked like,” said Neko.

“They’ll be the Antiquarian and Levinquick arguing with the police officers in the Garment District about license to carry.”

“Whatever you say,” said Neko, knowing that Tern would manage to convince her to do it anyway.

“Good,” said Tern. Neko started preparing to go to bed, while her roommate sang, “Lovely ladies going for a song, got a lot of callers, but they never stay for long…”


End file.
